A notorious drug kingpin who specializes in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffick hard drugs to Europe, has been arrested by operatives of Nigeria’s Anti-narcotic Agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), in Okota area of Lagos, South West Nigeria.
The drug kingpin, Charles Uwagbale, who recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy was arrested on Friday 21st July, when he was preparing her to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.
A press statement by NDLEA’S spokesperson Mr. Femi BabaFemi disclosed this in Abuja on Sunday.
Meanwhile, attempts to smuggle 98 cartons containing over Five Million pills of Tramadol valued at about Three Billion, Seven Hundred Million Naira has been thwarted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos.
BabaFemi said, it came through the robust synergy between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport as well as those at the DHL cargo warehouse.
He said, Preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as final destination.
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In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Bauchi state have recovered over Six Million pills of opioids from three suspects, Emmanuel Onyebuchi, 32; Uche Iyida, 33; and Chinedu Ezeanyim 32.
This follows their arrest alongside a truck driver and his assistant at Shopping Complex, Maiduguri Bye-Pass, Bauchi town on Wednesday, 19th July and the subsequent follow up search of the residence of Iyida on Friday, 21st July.
Also, over fewer than Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine tablets of Exol-5 were also recovered by operatives from a shop close to the market at Hong Road, Gombi, Adamawa state on Friday 21st July, while 46,000 capsules of tramadol were seized from a suspect, Paul Ajaegbu, 36, along Owerri – Aba road, Imo state on Monday 17th July.
Meanwhile, in Ondo state, NDLEA operatives in their numbers stormed the Ofosu forest where they destroyed 29 hectares of cannabis farms on Thursday, 20th July.
The farm is owned by Osamezu George Chukwuemeka, 51, his wife Kate Osamezu, 43; Agboola Wasiu, 37 and Mustapha Sanni and were arrested during the operation, while 118.5kg processed cannabis was recovered from the farm.
BabaFemi explained that in another raid of the warehouse of a suspect at Elegbeka, Ose LGA, not less than 107 jumbo bags of the same illicit substance weighing 1,132.5kg were recovered on Monday, 17th July.
Similar seizures and arrests were made by the NDLEA’S operatives in Sokoto, Yobe, Edo, Imo, Kano, Kogi, Ogun, Nasarawa states.
The Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, retired Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa who was impressed by the volume of arrests and seizures made by officers and men in the affected commands, commended them for jobs well done.
He urged them and their counterparts across the country to continue the synergy with other security agencies and stakeholders in the fight against substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
